By: Diane Benjamin It has been obvious for a long time the Town of Normal government exists for itself, not the citizens paying their bills. The last thing Koos and company want is pesky citizens messing up their plans. Chris Koos has stated Council meetings are “business meetings”, he leaves out the part about being […]
By: Diane Benjamin I received this letter by FOIA. It is written to Chris Koos on letterhead from the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 99: Excerpt – note the date: So, Local 99 is upset with Chris Koos for not awarding the project to a local contractor using local union labor on a Town of Normal […]
Mulberry School Board President Nick Keever claims the signs are not on their property. According to GIS they own the corner of Beech and Lincoln. He also claims they don’t own the property with the Mulberry School sign on it. Nick claims half of their building is owned as a private residence and the signs […]
By: Diane Benjamin First, you need to review what the Local Black Lives Matter group wants: Who are they endorsing, supposedly because a survey they filled out? I wonder if Chris Koos watching Target get looted had anything to do with their decision? Cities that have cut funding to their police departments have seen astronomical […]
By: Diane Benjamin Evidently Koos is just another leftist attempting to re-write history. Record low unemployment and rising wages especially for lower wage workers went right over his head. He claims in this campaign flyer McLean County barely survived Trump: Koos will do anything to not run on HIS record of debt, friends and family […]
By: Diane Benjamin The candidates below have refused or ignored invitations to appear on Cities 92.9 radio. That means they don’t want to discuss issues with those who lean right and aren’t interested in earning your vote. Maybe they know their policies can’t be defended. Chris Koos – Normal Mayor Jackie Gunderson – Bloomington Mayor […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos and has band of merry fleecers will continue to increase funding to Connect Transit. They adore empty buses and the $1,000,000 a month the feds and state poor into McLean County to keep it running. They love electric buses and solar panels. They love transfer stations that give their union […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve written almost 7600 stories since 2012. Most I can not remember, luckily readers do remember. The story below is one readers remembered that I didn’t. Chris Koos is infamous for his insider deals that benefit friends and a compliant Council that allow the fleecing of taxpayers. I can’t possibly remember all […]
By: Diane Benjamin WGLT did another hit piece on Stan Nord, but as usual they MISSED the story and left out details: https://www.wglt.org/post/normal-council-member-stan-nord-alleges-discrimination-independent-lawyer-disagrees First, just like the lawyer Normal hired to conduct the assault on Joes Stationhouse Pizza, the results were completely predictable. Second, WGLT claims they obtained a copy of the 7 page page […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the PAC website: https://www.responsiblecities.com/ Gee, it sounds like this group wants the best candidates for the entire community. They don’t. Chris Koos and Kevin McCarthy have recently stated they were elected by the citizens of Normal and they don’t care about Bloomington. They want to run water pipes on top of […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Remember this: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/normal-mayor-chis-koos-nominated-to-serve-on-the-amtrak-board-of-directors/article_e6cd0399-5940-595f-83ce-dc657a026246.html Chris Koos isn’t on the Amtrak Board because he was never confirmed by the Senate: https://www.congress.gov/nomination/116th-congress/1915 Koos will never be on the Amtrak Board unless he is re-nominated. See the explanation for Senate Rule XXXI listed above: Excerpt: The Koos nomination ended in September 2020. Did […]
By: Diane Benjamin When you vote April 6th keep in mind Chris Koos appointed people to this board (after leaving a seat empty for 1 year and and half) and fully supports this massive abuse of taxpayer dollars! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l1-FAtzgx813CrntasrMvlqTvhxYcITY/view PDF page 22 Free bus rides during February 2021 totaled 108,736 February 2020 rides were 236,504 […]
By: Diane Benjamin Do you want a mayor of Bloomington with an agenda or one that listens to citizens? Mike Straza was on Cities 92.9 last night with Steve Suess. Listen to the beginning of the podcast: Straza worked on Chris Koos’ re-lection campaign 4 years ago. Much worse, Straza was on Dave Shields team […]
If you still can’t decide who to vote for Mayor of Normal – watch this: https://video.wtvp.org/video/s33-e29-normal-mayoral-conversation-roglrq/?fbclid=IwAR3Akay5gwseBWgZDGKPHds6rJcteyQVJm50QEJnQhbZt1nYg241W4pPVAs
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos knows he has nothing to run on. Instead of discussing issues he clipped and chopped comments made by Marc Tiritilli before Rivian incentives were approved by the Normal Town Council. Koos wants you to believe Tiritilli was against Rivian buying the plant when Marc was actually against taking money from […]
By: Diane Benjamin Chris Koos had rulings against him before for violating the Open Meetings Act, but never 2 very close together. This was the first violation: https://wordpress.com/stats/post/90250/blnnews.com The Attorney General’s office finally found time to rule on a second (OBVIOUS) violation. This one was filed in 2019 by Karyn Smith. WEEK has the story: […]
By: Diane Benjamin From the McLean County Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee Facebook page: Notice a missing endorsement? No mayor of Normal? Gee, Chris Koos isn’t pro-business with his “right fit” philosophy? Chamber? Brad McMillan: McMillan teaches at Bradley: From their website: https://www.bradley.edu/academic/departments/ecl/faculty/profile.dot?id=8d940fe9-a5f4-40ab-b417-967975ce03d8 McMillian is Executive Director of the Institute for Principled Leadership in […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Responsible Cities PAC was formed by people like Chris Koos and Mike Straza. Look at who donated to the PAC, these are the top 25: If you look at the entire list of donor you will find other familiar names: RC McBride, Allen Sender, his wife Elizabeth Robb, Paul Harmon, George […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Attorney General finally got around to ruling on a slam dunk Request for Reviews filed by Marc Tiritilli in November 2019. Even though the law gives them 90 days to rule, the Attorney General doesn’t comply. While Chris Koos flagrantly violated Marc’s 1st Amendment rights, the rest of the Council sat […]
By: Diane Benjamin Remember the Eagles song Desperato? That should be the Chris Koos theme song. He has NOTHING to run on so he is now personally attacking Marc Tiritilli instead of addressing the issues. Chris is a divisive leader because he knows people don’t want the things he wants. Marc Tiritilli is running to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Yesterday’s story: https://blnnews.com/2021/03/11/campaign-signs/ Just to prove these signs are on Town of Normal owned land, below is the GIS showing the Town owns the land along Beech Street: Chris Koos, Kevin McCarthy, and Chemberly Cummings must not care about the law. Of course those who have watched Council meetings . . . […]
By: Diane Benjamin This map isn’t as crazy as it first appears: When the Town of Normal runs new sewer lines they assess fees to the new area to recover those costs. All those shaded areas have been mapped to recover those costs. The fee per acre is printed for each. This is the map […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Town of Normal (taxpayers) own the vehicle Chris Koos drives: Taxpayers also pay for the plates which could have been GOV plates for much less: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3881 I am told Koos has Mayor vanity plates instead of government plates. Use of a taxpayer owned vehicle amounts to additional compensation. So how much […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night a debate was held between Normal’s current Mayor, Chris Koos, and his challenger Marc Tiritilli. In 2017 the same two faced off, only 18.2% of registered voters bothered to vote. Think your vote doesn’t mater? Look at this: WGLT has the debate posted on their Facebook page. Tiritilli thinks Normal […]
Today at 6 PM CST – 7 PM CST Hear from the candidates running for Normal mayor in the April 6 election. They are Chris Koos and Marc Tiritilli. This debate is co-sponsored by WGLT, the League of Women Voters of McLean County, the Bloomington-Normal branch of the NAACP, and Illinois State University’s Center for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Normal has two water problems: The first is spending over $5 million to run water lines on top of Bloomington’s out West College The second is brown water or worse at various locations around the Town. Chris Koos keeps trying to claim discolored water doesn’t exist. Just hit play to hear him […]
By: Diane Benjamin Proving yet again the priorities of staff have nothing to do with what citizens expect: The Town is going to fix West College, it needs it! The problem is they aren’t just going to fix it. So far just DESIGN is budgeted at $1.45 MILLION. DESIGN Nothing is going to be built […]
By: Diane Benjamin The Steve Suess show has become the best place to get information on candidates for the April 6th election. Candidates who refuse to appear on his show prove they have no intention of discussing issues with people who don’t align with them 100%. Jackie Gunderson (Bloomington mayor) has refused to be interviewed. […]
By: Diane Benjamin More on Normal’s Monday meeting: Nobody cared that Pam Reece did not follow her current contract. This didn’t happen: Chris Koos stated he and Pam cooked up the new contract. Poor Pam won’t get the 9 months of severance her old contract called for, the new one limits her to 20 weeks. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night during Trustee comments at the end of the meeting Chris Koos claimed Council agreed to limit each to 5 minutes. Evidently that was done in secret. I doubt Stan Nord got 5 minutes because he was constantly interrupted. Nord showed a map of where Normal plans to run water lines […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Dave Shields must still be hurting from losing to Stan Nord 2 years ago: Sorry Dave, but it appears your opinion doesn’t carry a lot of weight. That doesn’t stop Dave from working for his good buddy Chris Koos however. Does Davie know Town elections are supposedly non-partisan? Sure […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1468-0416.00029 Fitch does have Normal at AAA, did Normal pay to get that rating? Moody’s doesn’t have Normal at AAA: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/normal-town-il-moodys-assigns-230707753.html This story is based on the $2 million debt Normal recently refinanced instead of paying it off. QUOTE: RATING OUTLOOK The stable outlook incorporates our expectation that the town’s financial position […]
Normal proved Monday night they are not a business friendly community, of course we knew that. Their “Right Fit” policies mean only those businesses they approve of or kneel before them are welcome. If you missed this story: https://blnnews.com/2021/02/02/normals-reputation-after-last-night/ A GoFundMe has been set up by Curt Nord to help with the fines levied by […]
By: Diane Benjamin I can find numerous things citizens need to know after Normal spent 9 hours meeting 1/26 and then another 3 hours last Monday talking about the budget. Pam Reece wants you to know they aren’t spending over $5 million running water pipes on West College to Rivian. So, either they know something […]
By: Diane Benjamin Of course Stan Nord knows taxpayers got fleeced to rent the second floor of 1 Uptown Circle only to fill a hole in Uptown. The Council that approved paying $35000-$36000 a month simply did as they were told. Chris Koos wanted the hole gone and obviously the private sector wasn’t going to […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since Chris Koos, Kevin McCarthy, Scott Preston, and Chemberly Cummings want your vote April 6th, does this look like something they would do to get it? The Normal Council held a 9 hour budget session yesterday. Surprise! They aren’t going to raise property taxes this year. Instead they are rearranging money they […]
By: Diane Benjamin Koos must think lots of people approve of what happened at the US Capital. Hint Chris: They don’t. The videos released over the weekend are outrageous and every participant should be prosecuted. If Koos’s real intent was to vilify the locals who went to DC on January 6th he doesn’t support the […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve questioned for YEARS why CIRBN employees are considered Town of Normal employees entitled to all the benefits every other employee has. CIRBN is a direct competitor to other internet providers who don’t have that luxury. The Town of Normal has subsidized CIRBN by using their service and paying them to run […]
Note the date – November 2nd I filed this FOIA request: I received this response: At least he had a mask on! Maybe he was REALLY hungry, ate by himself, and paid for it himself. . . . . .
By: Diane Benjamin The University of Illinois at Chicago recently rated Illinois as the second most corrupt state in the country: https://www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/corruption-costs-illinois-taxpayers-at-least-550m-per-year/?fbclid=IwAR11VlYYI6ARmHozjFT0DQgsFig-PgAJNkYwkSGbD1jj3AvL_hCEGbDrJK8 Central Illinois isn’t exempt. The Town of Normal is famous for calling new bike trails a Quality of Life issue. It is – for bike shop owner and Mayor of Normal: Chris Koos. […]
